Researchers at the RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science (CSRS) have identified a way for plants to gain resistance to cesium, a radioactive toxin that can be found in contaminated soil. After manipulating a specific biological signaling pathway, plants were able to resist cesium stress, meaning that their growth was less stunted, at least in the roots. These findings will impact the development of plants capable of growing in cesium-contaminated soil and under other challenging conditions.